Frank Wisner

Frank G. Wisner, Jr., Vice Chairman, American International Group, "was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to India on July 5, 1994 and presented his credentials in New Delhi on August 2, 1994, succeeding Thomas R. Pickering. Mr. Wisner holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest grade in the Senior Foreign Service. Before New Delhi, his most recent assignment was as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, from January 1993 to June 1994. Prior to that, he served as Under Secretary of State for International Security Affairs from July 1992 until January 1993.

"Mr. Wisner served as U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines from August 1991 until June 1992; served as Ambassador to Egypt from August 1986 until June 1991; and served as Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs from April 1982 to April 1986. He served as Ambassador to Zambia from August 1979 to April 1982.

"Frank G. Wisner joined the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer in December 1961, and after Western Arabic Language training in Morocco, was assigned to Algiers. In 1964, he was detailed to the U.S. Agency for International Development in Vietnam. He remained in Vietnam until 1968, serving in succession as Staff Aide to the Deputy Chief of Mission, Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Civil Operation, and Senior Advisor to the Vietnamese province of Tuyen Duc.

"Returning to Washington in December 1968, Mr. Wisner was Officer in Charge of Tunisian Affairs in the State Department, where he remained until July 1971, when he was named chief of the Economic Commercial Section at the American Embassy in Tunis. He then serviced as chief of the Political Section in Dhaka from July 1973 until March 1974. From March 1974 until April 1975, Mr. Wisner was Director of Plans and Management in the Bureau of Public Affairs in Washington. He then joined the President's Interagency Task Force on Indochina. He was Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Joseph Sisco, from August 1975 until July 1976. Mr. Wisner was named Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs in July 1976, then Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State in April 1977.

"Frank Wisner was born in New York in 1938. He graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. degree in 1961. He is married to the former Christine de Ganay. They have four children."

Source: American International Group Biography.


 * Director, Institute for Middle East Peace and Development
 * Advisory Board, Partnership for a Secure America
 * Advisory Board, Egypt's International Economic Forum

--- "Frank G. Wisner II, co-chairman of a new independent task force report on Afghanistan cosponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Society, says the United States is at 'a pivotal moment' in its efforts to keep the government of President Hamid Karzai afloat. Failure in Afghanistan, he warns, would sharply diminish U.S. 'credibility as a peacekeeper in a very troubled age, our ability to build coalitions in the war against terror, and our ability to act as a force for stability and a mobilizer of sympathetic international attention.'

"Wisner, a leading expert on South Asia and vice chairman of external affairs at American International Group, says he believes that 'we are going to make some of the belated commitments that should have been made earlier' to save Afghanistan."

Source: CFR 2003.

He is Emeritus Director of Refugees International.

Frank Wisner: "Vice Chairman, American International Group Inc.; Former U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, Egypt, India, and the Phillippines; Former Undersecretary, U.S. Departments of Defense and State."

Trustee Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Source: ActivistCash.com.

"On 28 October 1997, Enron Corporation announced the entry of Frank G. Wisner Jr. onto its board of directors. Most of the business press did not find this untoward and it certainly did not emerge as part of the US discussions on corruption at the highest level. Frank Wisner, as we know in India, was the US Ambassador from 1994 until this year and his entry into Enron must be seen in light of the scandal of Dabhol. Enron, like most US corporations, uses its close association with the state (both its elected and bureaucratic arms) for its own ends. US campaigns are financed by corporations whose money not only enables politicians to win elections, but it also buys businesses the state's power both for domestic subsidies and for the use of US power in the international arena.

Frank G. Wisner, Sr.
"Frank Wisner, Jr. was a big catch for Enron Corporation. His lineage is impeccable, since his father, Frank Wisner Sr., was a senior CIA official (from 1947 until his suicide in 1965) who was involved in the overthrow of Arbenz of Guatemala (1954) and Mossadeq of Iran (1953). Wisner Junior was well-known in the CIA and he worked as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Under Secretary of State for International Security Affairs; his current boss, Kenneth L. Lay, Chief Executive Officer of Enron Corporation, also worked for the Pentagon during the US war in Vietnam. With 'economic espionage' as a task for the CIA (see PD, 12 October 1997), there is little doubt that Wisner used this instrument during his long-tenure as Ambassador in Asian nations. A Wisner staffer told InterPress Services this year that 'if anybody asked the CIA to help promote US business in India, it was probably Frank'.

"When Wisner was US Ambassador to the Philippines (1991-92), Enron was in the midst of negotiations to manage the two Subic Bay power plants. When Wisner left Manila in July 1992, Enron won the deal and began to manage the plant in January 1993. During Wisner tenure in India, he fought long and hard to secure various deals for Enron. He went so far as to boycott the 'India Power '96 -- Beyond Dabhol' summit, despite being scheduled to give an address (this was part of a US advisory to companies to avoid India for six-months, a pressure tactic on India during the winter of 1995-96). Wisner left India earlier this year only after it seemed like Enron's place was secure."

Source: Vijay Prashad, "The Power Elite: Enron and Frank Wisner," circa 2000. See remainder of lengthy article. --

SourceWatch resources

 * Operation Mockingbird